Date- 21 December, 40,028
Location-Eastern Falconclaw forest, Near Klington's outskirts.
It was a snowy night, pretty much the whole eastern Falconclaw forest had been covered in the dense white veil of snow. All the flora which had been dried up during the autumn, was now freezing under the cold snow. This was just the beginning of winter in Klington and it's eastern reaches.
Communication and transport networks were barely working at maximum efficiency, and some minor hiccups were frequently observed during the past week in the eastern part of the Falconclaw forest.
Northern, southern and western parts of the Falconclaw forest had been doing well comparatively in terms of transport and communication networks. The weather wasn't as bad in those parts, but eastern Falconclaw was barely holding on.
The whole of Falconclaw was full of deadly predators and giant mammals, so without proper roads and communication network it wasn't safe to traverse through the remote forest, especially in this freezing cold and bad weather. The Government prohibited everyone from entering in eastern parts of the Falconclaw forest during the night.
Poor communication and transport and hostile wildlife aside, poor visibility was also a major concern on snowy nights. So, government had deployed strict security and surveillance at every outpost to prevent anyone from entering in the eastern part of Falconclaw forest.
However, despite all the strict measures taken by the government, someone was still able to enter the eastern part, and now was driving his black car on the roads of the forest, which weren't in good shape.
The man was driving at a speed of about forty kilometers per hour. He was in his late twenties, had fluorescent green eyes and white hair with a scruffy beard. He was in a hurry, desperation etched onto his pale face.
'Ah fuck! Only if I hadn't drank so much beer at yesterday's party then I wouldn't have to waste my hard earned money to bribe those dogshit outpost guards!!!'
He wanted to increase his speed, but the roads weren't in their best condition and visibility was low because of the heavy snowfall. But still, he wasn't totally out of luck as it was full moon's night.
He was an emerging boxing star in Jerenberg and he absolutely couldn't afford to miss his first match in the B-64 boxing tournament, which was taking place in Riklin city.
The only way to reach Riklin was to cross the remote Falconclaw forest. Unfortunately, the eastern part was in the boxer's way. He wasn't fond of breaking the laws, but laws weren't important if his future as a boxer was at the stake.
He tried to call his secretary while decreasing his speed a bit. Fortunately, the signals weren't that bad and his cell phone was ringing, but the damn secretary wasn't picking up the call. A minute later the boxer heard a voice message, he was driving so he had kept his phone on the seat besides him after taping the call button.
The phone was on speaker but even though the volume was full, he wasn't able to hear most of his secretary's voice message due to the sudden howling sounds of wolves. The boxer was initially confused but then he realized that the driver's window was left opened so he quickly closed it to lessen the sound, but after that he saw a large pack of wolves chasing after his car.
The boxer let out a startled shriek as he noticed the large pack of wolves chasing after his car. Their eyes were full of unfathomable mad hunger, and their jaws were drooling with saliva. He felt like a desperate deer being hunted down by the pack of hungry wolves. He immediately sped up in order to escape.
'Goddamn dogs!!! If the laws hadn't been protecting you then your kind would've vanished centuries ago.'
Soon he lost the wolves as he stopped hearing those nasty growls. Instead he heard the last of his secretary's voice message.
"...leave a message!"
The boxer gazed at his phone as he gritted his teeth, grabbed the phone and yelled as he left a voice message for his lousy secretary.
"Hi, this is Eugene. You better call me back quickly if you don't want to get fired!"
Soon after the voice message was delivered, the battery ran out and his phone switched off. As his phone switched off Eugene cursed inwardly, somehow today his luck was at it's worst.
He had even forgot to bring a power bank with him. The car he was driving didn't have a charging switch so he should've brought a power bank with him. Now there was no way to charge his phone and there were no other means of effective communication.
Eugene was panicking as he sped up again, he was sweating profusely. Soon he took a left turn and...saw a distant lone figure standing in his way. Since it was night and visibility was low, he wasn't able discern much about the distant figure but it surely looked human.
As he was driving closer to the figure, he honked his car horn so that the person would get out of his way, but it didn't budge from it's position, left without any choice Eugene applied brakes. He got out of the car, covering his face partially with his palm, it was snowing heavily and yet the figure remained stable without moving at all.
It was freezing cold even though Eugene was wearing a warm parka. A fit man like him was stuttering but the person in front of him wasn't. He tilted his head a bit in confusion as he turned on the torch in his hand. He started walking closer to the human.
'I don't know why but something feels off...'
As he got closer to the figure he noticed a young boy who hardly looked to be eighteen, wearing a black woolen jacket and trousers. The boy had ivory skin, it almost felt like he was dead, if Eugene hadn't noticed him blinking. He had scarlet eyes and onyx hair.
It was weird really, except the blinking part nothing else about him made Eugene feel he was alive. After a few moments of silence, Eugene frowned and said with an irritated voice:
"Get out of my way."
The boy didn't reply, but only continued to stare at Eugene with an expressionless face. He was just standing there, idly, which infuriated Eugene. The boy could do whatever he wanted but if he would get in Eugene's way then he needed to be taught a lesson.
Eugene cracked his knuckles as he walked closer to the boy. He had a somber expression on his face, he stopped a feet or so away from the boy, and as he was about to suck a punch on the young boy's jaw he suddenly noticed something very strange.
Eugene's eyes solely focused on the strange thing he noticed moving. His eyes widened in dread and disbelief as he saw the young boy's shadow moving slowly towards his own shadow. He stepped backwards, while trying to suppress his horrified scream...or rather he tried to step backward.
Before Eugene could do anything the pale young boy grabbed his neck and strangled him. He instantly lifted Eugene, who was easily double of the boy's own weight. Now the boy didn't look so pale anymore, he appeared frail and almost dead earlier but now it felt like he was full of life and vigor.
He smiled wickedly as he tightened his grip around Eugene's neck. Eugene observed a weird crimson 'layer' around the boy's whole body. Eugene tried to kick the boy but it felt like he was kicking an iron wall. Nevertheless Eugene kept struggling.
He struggled as he groaned and grunted, until...the strange shadow of the boy touched Eugene's own shadow and, as soon as the two shadows came in contact... Eugene let out a deafeningly painful scream as he threw his head back, his eyes rolled back due to the terrible pain.
He felt as if his whole consciousness was being torn apart. The pain was so extreme that even his vocal cords gave out. He grabbed the young boy's hands with whatever strength he could gather from each and every muscle in his body but to no avail.
The pain didn't recede neither did the feeling of his consciousness being torn apart. Suddenly Eugene felt like he was about to die...no this was definitely killing him or rather something within him. He felt like he needed to know who or rather what was killing him?
He rolled down his eyes which were full of dread and despair. As he barely uttered his last question, with a voice full of pain and agony.
"W-What a-a-are you?"
The boy's wicked smile dimmed as he let out a soft chuckle, he then replied in a creepily melodious deep voice:
"I'm someone who devours the shadows."
As Eugene heard those words his eyes became dark and hollow...his body stopped struggling. There was no sign of movement shown by him rather only the strands of his hair were getting gently caressed by blowing breeze.
Eugene had died. He had become a corpse which had no shadow...